Wheat Industry News
News and Information from Around the Wheat Industry
Speaking of Wheat
“Regenified, what does that mean? Raw materials … grown in a very sustainable effort. It’s saying that we are making things better tomorrow than they were yesterday, from a farming perspective. So, we are building the soil, we are preserving the soil, we are protecting the environment, we are doing all those things that are very important for generations to come.” – Bernard Peterson, Chairman, National Wheat Foundation and Kentucky wheat farmer who is the sole supplier of red winter wheat for Makers Mark® Bourbon. Read more here.
KSU Awarded $16M Grant to Study Crop Yields and Sustainability
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) awarded a $7,657,633 grant to Kansas State University (KSU) to support an expansive study across the U.S. Corn Belt and Great Plains exploring how crop, soil, and water management affect the soil microbial communities that drive agroecosystem functions. Partners including KSU, Bayer, Iowa State University, LandScan, LI-COR Environmental, Mississippi State University, The Ohio State University and The University of Kansas also provided funds for a total investment of $16,362,948.
Argentine Wheat Policies, Production in Spotlight
With Javier Milei’s election as Argentina’s president, farmers there are hoping new policies will help rapidly expand wheat production, Bloomberg wrote this week. The news service cites a farmer and board member of the Bahia Bianca Grain Exchange who believes that Milei’s promise to undo currency controls cut agricultural export tariffs will entice increased production. The last time Argentina deregulated its wheat market eight years ago production soared by 52% and kept climbing to fresh records. Read more.
Christopherson Tells U.S. Wheat Quality Story
Regional farm publication Tri-State Neighbor has published an interview with South Dakota Wheat Commission Executive Director Reid Christopherson about his participation in U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) Crop Quality Seminars in North Asia. He said the seminars put U.S. industry experts “in front of several of the best international customers, telling that story of why U.S. wheat should be a part of their formulation” adding that there is a special story to tell about the functional quality of U.S. wheat. Read more here.
Reid Christopherson, Executive Director of South Dakota Wheat Growers Association, recently traveled with a group of six others to China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to tell the story of U.S. Wheat.
K-State Research: Lower Gluten with Same Dough Quality
Kansas State University researchers have reported a breakthrough in developing wheat-based foods that contain lower amounts of gluten, a discovery that may lessen the adverse effects for those with celiac or other autoimmune diseases. Scientists from K-State’s Wheat Genetics Resource Center and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service — in partnership with USW member Kansas Wheat — successfully used a gene editing technique to reduce the presence of two types of gluten-coding genes called gliadins. “We were very surprised that [editing] reduced the immunotoxicity caused by gliadin genes in wheat by 47-fold,” said Dr. Eduard Akhunov, University Distinguished Professor in K-State’s Department of Plant Pathology, and director of the Wheat Genetics Resource Center. Read more.
